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 Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:12 pm
Takes place after this solo
“I think that youma we ran into before is who I’m supposed to bond with,” Jet said through gritted teeth. There wasn’t necessarily anything bad about the youma. It had been the only one he’d felt any kind of connection with, whether that was because it could talk in his head or what, but… it was better than nothing, right?
Okay, maybe nothing was better, but he needed to find out for sure.
“It’s been talking in my head,” he admitted, pulling his weapon from subspace as he looked around to see if he could locate the canine in the shadows. “If you want to stay here, you can. It shouldn’t take long. I just want to see what it can do.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:28 pm
Aquamarine sat on the ground less than a foot away from the tent flap, off to the side with a canister of pringles and a pile of random rocks and crystal bits, which he tried to skid along the ground to see how far he could make them go (the rocks and crystal bits, not the pringles).
He glanced up at Jet, hiding his concern behind a frown.
Jet’s grumbling within the confines of the tent had been audible, and Aquamarine had a pretty good feeling he knew what it meant. Jet wasn’t usually the type to talk to himself, so unless the Rift had driven him crazy, the starlit dog youma with the creepy grin was up to no ******** dog. They’d been at this for days. If that beast wasn’t going to make it easy for them, the least it could do was stop harassing them.
“Supposed to?” Aquamarine asked, banishing the half eaten can of pringles back to subspace. He stood up and summoned his rapier. “Who says you’re supposed to do anything? We’re in here because you wanted to come in here, not because you have to be.”
For some reason, it seemed important to make the distinction.
“Whatever,” he continued dismissively. “If you think I’m staying here, you’re an idiot. Lead the way, he-who-talks-to-youma-in-his-head.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:55 pm
He wished it was just in his head. He was very aware that he’d been talking out loud to what sounded like himself for a while now. How long had they been there? It was almost time for them to call it quits and head back to check in with Axinite, otherwise there would be a search party sent out.
“I don’t know,” Jet shook his head, wishing that he knew why he felt the way he did. It was almost as if the youma was picking him in its… weird way. He just wished it would stop being creepy and going on in his head with overused quotes.
“It’s like it wants me to do something, I just don’t know what. I don’t know what a bond is supposed to feel like, but if it’s annoyance then… yeah.”
Of course now the youma was silent. Jet led the way further into the Rift, away from their campsite. There were other youma milling around, but nothing of the stardog yet.
“Aqua, I’m… feeling off about all of this. If you think it’s a bad idea, if we should just call it quits… I’ll trust your decision,” Jet said as they walked. Aquamarine was there just as much to keep him sane as he was for extra support.
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:05 pm
Aquamarine followed.
He’d been following for an eternity now, it felt like. The days blended together in the Rift. The only reason they knew how much time had been passing them by was Jet’s watch. Without it, they’d have no concept of day or night, and the hours would stretch on and on and on.
That neither of them had slept much in that time made things worse. Jet muttered to himself when he should be sleeping, and he muttered to himself when he did a shift keeping watch. They walked and searched and he muttered more. Aquamarine didn’t snap at him, and after the first time he asked what the <********> was going on, he kept his questions to himself. His job was to make sure they both got out of this alive. He took that seriously, even if he complained about it sometimes.
“What do you mean, you’re feeling off?” he asked.
He shot suspicious glances at some of the other youma they passed, but none of them approached. Aquamarine preferred it that way.
If only the dog would show its ugly face.
“I don’t think my decision matters much,” he said. “You really want to quit now? What would you do then? Who’s to say the annoying ******** won’t follow you out of here?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:15 pm
“I don’t know,” he said again, which annoyed him because he felt like he’d been saying I don’t know more often than anything else he’d said. It was unhelpful for either of them, and he was tired and frustrated and part of him did want to call it quits because every time he closed his eyes, there were sharp fangs grinning at him.
He lifted his free hand to scrub at his face, as though that would help wake him up some more. It didn’t. It only made him miss home more. If he never had to step into the Rift after this, he would be happy.
“I don’t know, it’s like… that stardog is mocking me. Like it knows something I don’t know, or… Remember using those earrings? It’s like that almost. I can see things too. It’s hanging around some large crystals that I think we passed the other day,” he explained, nodding in the direction they were walking.
“And your decision does matter,” Jet frowned, pausing so he could actually turn to Aquamarine. “Your decision has always mattered. Your decisions have kept us both alive, so. It matters. If you think we should quit now, then… we should do that.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:34 pm
While Aquamarine appreciated the consideration, he didn’t let it go to his head. Yes, he wanted to matter. Yes, he wanted Jet to take his thoughts into account. Yes, he wanted to be able to make decisions and actually have Jet listen to him, but if they didn’t do this now, it would remain unfinished for an indeterminate length of time. Maybe Jet would move on and forget about the idea of a personal youma, or maybe he’d mope about it for several weeks before suggesting another foray into the Rift.
Aquamarine would rather avoid coming in here more than they had to.
“Let’s keep going,” he said. “We’ll find that ugly dog and make it tell us what the ******** it wants.”
Or the ******** thing would annoy them both to death. Either was just as likely.
The more Aquamarine thought about it, the more he realized the latter might actually be more likely.
“You’re going to have to be more descriptive than large crystals, though,” he continued, gesturing around them with his empty hand. “There’re so many crystals in this hellhole, it’s almost tacky.”
Which meant they could be walking forever, trying to find whatever place Jet was seeing in his head. (Which was another concerning matter, but Aquamarine figured it had just as much to do with the dog as Jet talking to himself did. He had to wonder if it was the youma’s unique power or something related to the supposed bond. Clearly, he should have done some research of his own, or paid more attention at the youma seminar they went to.)
“Have you tried calling it?” he asked, only half joking. “How do you call a dog? You whistle, right? Or something. I don’t know, I’ve never owned a dog.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:09 pm
Jet made a face. He had not tried calling it. What was he supposed to do? Whistle, like Aquamarine suggested? Somehow he doubted the youma would respond to that, just to spite them.
“Never owned a dog, either,” he grumbled. “And I can’t really whistle.” To prove it, he put his lips together and blew and… just blew out air. He knew there was some kind of technique to it, but he just never learned. He didn’t have a need for it, not when he could just play the piano to create music.
“Hey,” he shouted into the Rift. Which responded back with growls of other youma nearby.
And then there were teeth that appeared in the shadows beside Aquamarine. Jet caught sight of it out of the corner of his eye and grabbed Aquamarine’s arm to yank him away, and brandished his weapon at the dog.
“What do you want from me? You’ve been bothering me for days.”
You can’t feel it? the youma responded with a low growl, despite its mischievous grin. It spoke in both their heads. Why are you here?
“To find a youma to bond with.”
Why?
“So I can get more power,” he answered honestly, and the youma cackled and faded into the darkness once more. Jet let out a shout of frustration and brandished his weapon in front of him. “What do you want??”
Power. I just don’t know if you can give it to me, little boy.
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 5:16 pm
Aquamarine had just enough time to snort at Jet’s pathetic attempt at a whistle, followed by his simple “hey,” before he was being grabbed and yanked to the side. He stumbled with a curse, then mumbled something under his breath that sounded like, “Who says you can manhandle me when we’re powered up?”
Of course, there were far more important matters.
Such as the grinning dog youma.
Did it ever do anything other than grin like that?
“Stop being such a pain in the a**,” Aquamarine told the dog once it faded away again, putting a bit of authority in his voice in case the ugly mutt felt like obeying him this time. “This weird, cryptic bullshit you’ve been pulling has been annoying the s**t out of us.”
With his rapier held before him, Aquamarine glanced around them, searching for where the dog might have gone. He saw no sign of it, just heard its voice in his ******** piece of s**t. Where the ******** did you go?”
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 5:46 pm
Hello, the youma greeted Aquamarine by taking a sniff at his a**, wet nose against his uniform before it cackled and leapt back as Jet saw and swung his weapon at it. Don’t be rude when I’m being polite, it grinned from its place in the shadows again.
“Leave Aqua out of this,” Jet growled, already annoyed again by the youma.
Why did you bring him then?
“To keep me from going insane,” he responded to another laugh from the youma. “Are you just going to harass us, or are you going to see if I have the power you want?” Part of Jet was surprised he was even offering. He should just leave the youma be, let it harass them, and leave without it.
But he couldn’t ignore the strange pull he felt, as much as it annoyed him.
“I’ll be your source of power if you agree to be mine,” he said, wondering if Aquamarine thought this was a horrible idea and if he should recant everything.
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:02 pm
With the barrier of cape and trousers, Aquamarine did not feel the wetness against his a** (did weird starlit dogs actually have wet noses?), but he definitely felt the pressure. With an undignified yelp, he turned and brandished his rapier.
“The <******** glared menacingly, mouth set in a ********, he was going to have to deal with this thing all the time now, wasn’t he? It was going to creep up on him at random times, just appear out of the shadows with its demented smile and sniff his a**. Did it have to greet him like a canine? It was a youma! Couldn’t it behave like… not a canine? Didn’t it have more dignity or… sense?
He almost told Jet to ******** it all so they could get the hell out of there. Surely there were less annoying youma for Jet to bond with. Maybe if they left and came back in several months, the weird bond would be gone and Jet could discover a different bond with another youma. If it even worked like that. Aquamarine couldn’t pretend to have any clue. If he had it his way, they’d never come in here again and Jet would go without a youma for the rest of his (hopefully long and fruitful) Negaverse career.
But this wasn't about Aquamarine.
Even if it was his a** the dog was sniffing.
“Go sniff someone else’s a**,” he muttered, deciding not to interrupt. "Please tell me it doesn't drool like a dog."
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:21 pm
While Jet didn’t like the fact that this youma was sniffing at his partner’s a**, he had seen the connection that could exist between them. Similar to the way the earrings Aquamarine had, Jet could hear the youma’s thoughts and see places it had been. That had to be useful, right? He could keep an eye out for trouble before putting himself or Aquamarine, or anyone else, in danger.
“Come on, don’t be shy now,” he called into the shadows. It seemed like the youma was taking some time to think it over. Eventually, Jet dismissed his weapon into subspace. If he was going to accept this youma to bond with, then he supposed he needed to treat it as an ally.
Although he would set some rules about not sniffing asses.
Very well, it agreed after a few long minutes. But I suggest you leave quickly, unless you wish to be caught in the approaching storm.
Sure enough there was crackling in the distance and clouds of dust being pulled into the sky. Jet turned to Aquamarine with a nod, but took a moment to look him over and make sure he wasn’t too scandalized.
“Let’s get the tent then,” he said as the youma continued to leer from the nearby shadows.
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:33 pm
“Wait, that’s it?”
Aquamarine wasn’t disappointed, but he felt a bit like he’d been building this entire journey up in his head, and now that it was ending he was feeling out of sorts that it hadn’t concluded the way he thought it might. He’d assumed there would be fighting at some point, that the dog would continue to give them trouble, maybe attack again before finally making its decision. One or both of them could have fallen down another crevice, or stumbled across one of the Greater Youma he knew were in here somewhere, lurking in the depths.
But, no. This appeared to be it.
A part of him was relieved.
The rest of him was deeply annoyed.
Aquamarine scoffed and threw his hands into the air, rapier and all.
“We’ve been in here for days, and this is how it ends?!” he ranted, reserving most of his anger for the dog youma. “You sniff my a** and listen to him bargain with you,” he flourished his empty hand in Jet’s direction, “and you decide that’s good enough?! <******** you, dog! We could have been done with this days ago!”
With a wordless shriek of rage, Aquamarine turned to begin stalking off. He stopped several yards away and shouted back at the shadows, “Do you even have a name, you piece of s**t?! Or should we call you Bingo? Lassie? Shadow? That one actually suits you!”
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 7:04 pm
The youma wagged its tail back and forth, clearly pleased by the way it irritated Aquamarine, its grin widening with pleasure.
We youma don’t usually address each other with names, it said, clearly amused. But I remember the name Arles from long ago. I suppose you can address me as such.
Jet would have been more exasperated if he didn’t hope this meant the youma would stop harassing him.
“Alright, Arles,” he agreed but made an effort to try and keep up with Aquamarine. He was glad he didn’t need to do more after the days they’d spent in the Rift, avoiding other youma and the storms and not sleeping much. Maybe this was all a ploy to just wear them down, but he thought he could work with what they had now.
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